Routine clinical procedures for tyrosine metabolites in body fluids are badly needed. We have recently developed an extremely sensitive technique for phenolic compounds which takes full advantage of both electrochemistry and high performance liquid chromatography to make measurements on the 0.1 picomole level practical using rather unsophisticated apparatus. This approach will form the nucleus of clinical methods for catecholamines, homovanillic acid, vanillomandelic acid, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, homogentisic acid, and related molecules in urine, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid. The assays developed would be specifically designed to maximize the clinically useful information obtainable by inexperienced personnel, while minimizing sample turnaround time. We are confident that data obtained by the proposed methods would be of higher quality than that presently available. The new assays would then be used, with a large clinical population, to more completely evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of body fluid levels to tumors of the sympathetic nervous system, affective disorders, Parkinson's disease, acute myocardial infarction, and alcaptonuria. The combined efforts of analytical chemists, clinical chemists, medical technologists, and physicians during all phases of the program will insure that maximum benefit is derived from the resulting data. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: "Abnormal Levels of Urinary Catecholamines in Dystrophic Mice and Hamsters," Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 5, 215 (1976), J. A. Kabara, R. M. Riggin and P. T. Kissinger. "Identification of Salsolinol as a Major Dopamine Metabolite in the Banana," J. Agr. Food Chem., 24, 189 (1976), R. M. Riggin, M. J. McCarthy, and P. T. Kissinger.